Limits

The only limits are the ones you put on yourself. Said another way...you can do anything you want to do. It's not going to be easy. It will take work, often a lot of work, but if you put in the time and energy, you can accomplish anything.

Stop listening to the naysayers. Pay no heed to the soul suckers. Forget about the doubters. Ignore everyone around you who doesn't support you. Believe in yourself, especially when others don't. Rise above the day to day bullshit and follow the path you want to follow.

No matter what you do, there are always going to be people who think you are crazy; people who will tell you no; people who will doubt you; people who just don't understand you. If they are going to be there no matter what, shouldn't you focus on what you want to do? Find people who will support you and surround yourself with them, then hit the ground running. What do you really want to do? What's really stopping you?

Scary

Things we fear:

• moving forward
• change
• stepping out of our comfort zone 
• speaking up 
• being true to ourselves
• standing out 
• not giving up 
• creating art 
• doing the work 
• taking chances 
• constantly trying to improve 
• admitting mistakes
• chasing dreams
• listening to instinct
• sharing with the world
• criticism
• praise   
• blazing your own path
• new ideas
• difficult conversations
• failure
• success

Things we must embrace:

• moving forward
• change
• stepping out of our comfort zone 
• speaking up 
• being true to ourselves
• standing out 
• not giving up 
• creating art 
• doing the work 
• taking chances 
• constantly trying to improve 
• admitting mistakes
• chasing dreams
• listening to instinct
• sharing with the world
• criticism
• praise   
• blazing your own path
• new ideas
• difficult conversations
• failure
• success

What Is My Purpose?

For the majority of us, knowing what we are supposed to do with our lives would be wonderful. This would be the one question most people would what answered. What is my purpose? Most of us just don't know what it is we are supposed to be doing (or even if there is something we are supposed to be doing). We hear people talk all the time about following our passions and doing what makes us happy, but many of us don't really know what our passions are, or if we do, how to make a living doing them. We get stuck in this struggle of wanting to love what we are doing but constantly thinking there must be something more out there to make us happier and feel more fulfilled.

Yes, there may be something better out there waiting for you. There may be something that sets your soul on fire. There may be something that makes you want to jump out of bed each morning and attack the day. There may be something better, or there may not. We don't know. That's the scary part. Do we constantly chase this unknown? Do we continue to give up what we have, thinking there may be something better, without really knowing? It's the Let's Make A Deal decision with life. "You have $5,000 but do you want to risk it for what is behind door number 2?" You have a job and a life that does bring happiness (more if you would let it), but do you want to risk it for what is hidden out there?

After reading that, you may think you have an answer, but what if I asked the questions in a different tone? Do you want to settle with what you have, thinking you are not as happy as you could be? Can you continue to do what you do, all while believing there is something more out there? Can you give up searching with the knowledge that you aren't as passionate as you want? Do you risk the hum drum existence you have for the chance of finding the greatness hidden out there?

You see, there are always two ways to look at things. I believe we need to find the happiness in what we have and what we do, while constantly searching for more. Searching doesn't always mean you have to quit your job and go looking for something different. In some cases it will mean this, but in others it won't. Your choices have to be your choices and your path will be different than every other path. You have to do things in your own way. You can't make all the choices someone else made because what works for them may not work for you. You have to solve these dilemmas based on your life, not based on someone else's life. How you decide to answer the questions above is personal. How you decide to proceed is up to you.

There is never going to be any "one size fits all" answer to finding our passion and happiness. Some people will find this search to be incredible easy, but others will struggle their entire lives. This doesn't make anyone right or wrong, it is just their path. The way you go about achieving everything you want probably won't work for many other people. We are all going to look at the issue differently, so there can't be a perfect solution. You can read as many books and blogs as you want. You can listen to all the experts, but in the end you are going to realize two things:

1) Different people will have different ways to "achieve" finding passion and happiness and many of these ways will contradict each other.
2) The vast majority of us are in the same place. Even the people who seem to have it all figured out will often have doubts about their purpose.

The answers to the big questions will never be one size fits all. These answers won't be found in books and they won't be found on blogs. No one can tell you what is going to work for you. You have to find it for yourself. You have to decide what is going to work for you. You have to get our there and explore and dream and work and hurt and love and fail and succeed and live. Asking the question is fine. Wondering if there is more out there is normal. You aren't in this by yourself, but you have to find your own answers. The real question is: Are you going to look for them?

Support Each Other

There are people who know exactly what they want to do and they do it. They find a career they love and continue pushing towards their goal of what they want to do. Then, there are people who aren't really sure. They think they want to do something and go for it, but once they are doing it, they realize it isn't really what they want to do.

It's okay to not know and to experiment. You will often frustrate the people who do know what they want to do because they can't grasp the idea that you do not. Don't let their frustration get to you. Keep moving forward and figuring out what you want to do and where you want to go. For you, passion has to be found. Keep searching and you will find what you are looking for. But, you have to keep searching.

If you are the type of person who gets frustrated at those of us searching, just relax. We would love to be in your shoes, but we don't think the same way you do. We would love to do something that makes us excited to jump out of bed in the morning. Constantly searching, we may talk about how things will be better when we do something else. If we get there, we may find out it isn't what we thought it was going to be or it doesn't do to our soul what we wanted it to. This may frustrate the person who knows exactly what they want, but it doesn't compare to the frustration of the person who feels unfulfilled.

If you know exactly what you want to do and you go for it, great! If you don't have a clue, but know you are going to constantly search and mold what you have, great (and good luck)! Both of these types of people need to support each other and cut the other a little slack. We're all in this together and we have to remember we each have our own thoughts and motivations. The more we help and support each other, the better off we will be.